Auldhouse Sweater is live! It's a super simple, slightly cropped sweater with a gorgeous lace pattern, and it's 50% off with coupon code AULDHOUSE50. Auldhouse is top down with short row shaping at the shoulders for the perfect fit. It's totally seamless with instructions for nine sizes - we always try to be size inclusive! There's advice on how to change the sleeve circumference and length too. The lace pattern looks impressive, but it's straightforward to knit. Cuffs, hem and the classic crew neck are finished with neat twisted ribbing I normally name patterns for places I’ve visited recently – in the past it was usually mountains I’d climbed in my last adventure. Now at eight months pregnant, my patterns are being named after places closer to home. Auldhouse is just down the road from my house and the location of a fantastic toddler group – how times change! Auldhouse Sweater is available at a 50% discount until midnight (GMT) on 22nd Feb using coupon code AULDHOUSE50 on Etsy, Ravelry, Payhip and the Littletheorem Knits Website. Coming soon...Spring Snowfall Test Knit
This weekend we'll be looking for test knitters for this beautiful cabled sweater. If you want to test knit, follow me on Instagram and watch out for the test call!
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We're having a little mini sale to celebrate Valentine's Day! Our three most heart filled patterns are half price with coupon code VALENTINE24. Here's a wee description of each of the patterns..... Loveheart CropLoveheart Crop is a super cute cropped tee with little "double nupps" that look just like hearts. It's a yoked top, but worked from the bottom up (so the hearts aren't upside down!) There are nine sizes to keep things inclusive, and it's the perfect Spring knit in 4ply yarn. Heart shaped double nupps Fairisle Hearts SweaterRather than lace, this time the hearts are stranded colourwork. Fairisle Hearts is a top down, seamless yoked sweater with a classic fairisle design. Just like Loveheart Crop, there are nine sizes to choose from. Alpinist Hot Water Bottle CozyAnother fairisle design, my Alpinist Hot Water Bottle Cozy is incredibly quick to knit in super chunky yarn. Always a great option for gift knitting, a true heartwarmer! You can find all these patterns on Ravelry as well, they're grouped into a Valentines Day Bundle. Use the same coupon code - VALENTINE24 for a 50% discount. My new pattern, Crosshill Cardigan, is live! It's a top down, seamless waterfall cardigan designed for miniskeins (but still beautiful in a single colour). The main colour is Mulberino Yak 4ply in navy and the contrast colours are a set of Mulberino Shfades, both from Orchidean Luxury Yarns. The cardi comes in nine sizes, to fit chests approximately 28-60". It's open at the front so there's a bit of leeway between sizes. The cardigan is worked from the top down using a modified raglan construction before splitting for the sleeves and body at the underarm. The body is worked down to the hem before picking up the sleeves stitches and working down to the cuff. We work a series of eight bands of lace from top to bottom, these could be worked in eight different colours, maybe one contrast colour, or the whole cardigan could be worked in a single colour. And what's the inspiration behind the name? Crosshill is the area in Glasgow where my parents stay, and a firm favourite of my daughter. This makes it one of the few places where I’m able to get any knitting done while she’s awake! Crosshill Cardigan is available at a 50% discount with coupon code CROSSHILL50 until 15th February 2024.
For my upcoming pattern, Goldenacre Cardigan, I really wanted the lace pattern to run all the way from the neckline down to the cuffs of the sleeves. To my mind, the best way to do this is using a Saddle Shoulder construction. In this post, I'll give details on how to knit a top down, saddle shoulder cardigan. Here's a diagram showing how the upper body is put together, we go through each part step by step below. In my Goldenacre Cardigan pattern, obviously there are all the exact stitch counts and patterns, but here we just give an overview. 1 and 2: work strips of lace (or whatever pattern you're using!) for the left and right saddle shoulders. These will go along the shoulder from the neckline to the top of the sleeve. I made mine quite long for a drop shoulder. Left: working a saddle shoulder. Right: Pick up and knit stitches from saddle shoulders with a cast on for back neck in between. 3. Lay out the saddle shoulders as shown in the above right picture. The cast on edges are at the centre and the live stitches are at the outer edges. Pick up and knit stitches from right to left along the top edges as shown, and cast on stitches for back neck in between. Work these stitches down the back to the underarm (shown below) and place on waste yarn/spare circular needle/stitch holder. In Goldenacre Cardigan, we add short row shaping at the shoulders for an improved fit. Upper back with saddle shoulders attached 4. In Goldenacre cardigan, there is an attached shawl collar. If you don't want a shawl collar attached, go ahead and skip to Step 6. Maybe you could pick up stitches round the whole front to keep things neat instead. Work the attached shawl collar from centre of back neck to the front edge of the saddle shoulders. We pick up stitches from the back and saddle shoulder with a spare needle (below top left). I picked them up from a row back to avoid a big gap. Then cast on stitches for the shawl collar (below top right), then work the shawl collar stitches, knitting edge stitches together with the picked up stitches on every second row (below bottom pictures). Top Left: pick up stitches from right saddle shoulder and right half of upper back. Top right: cast on stitches for shawl collar. Bottom left: hold shawl collar sts and pick up stitches together. Bottom right: purl shawl collar end stitch together with next picked up stitch. 5. Work the other half of the shawl collar. Pick up stitches from the saddle shoulder and along the back neck to meet the other half of the shawl collar (below left and centre). Rather than casting on, we pick up and knit stitches from the existing shawl collar cast on (below left). We then work the shawl collar stitches down towards to front edge of the saddle shoulder, again knitting edge stitches together with picked up stitches every second row (below right). Don't break the working yarn this time. Left: pick up and knit stitches from shawl collar cast on. Centre: Pick up stitches from left saddle shoulder and left half of back neck cast on. Right: purl shawl collar end stitch together with next picked up stitch. 6. Left Front: Work across shawl collar stitches, then pick up and knit stitches from the shawl collar for the left front. Stitches are worked down to underarm. Work across shawl front stitches and pick up and knit stitches from saddle shoulder 7. Right Front. Pick up and knit stitches from right saddle shoulder the work live shawl front stitches. Work all stitches down to underarm to match left front. Finally, we join right front, back and left front stitches before working down to the hem. Pick up and knit stitches from right saddle shoulder and work across shawl front stitches. And that's it! It ends up looking something like this: And here's a wee sneak peek at how the finished cardigan looks - it should be out for test knitting soon. Follow @littletheorem on instagram or twitter for the test call!
Arnprior is live! This super cosy cardigan is the perfect "quick to knit" pattern for winter wear. Living on Scotland's seemingly permanently cold and rainy west coast sometimes it seems like winter will never end, this is a great one to knit when you need something toasty and you don't want to spend a month knitting it! The simple but stunning lace pattern looks great at shoulders and cuffs, and the twisted ribbing adds interest to an otherwise easy stocking stitch knit. Arnprior Farm becomes a fabulous pumpkin patch in the Autumn and is a firm favourite of my daughter. This cardigan is so quick to knit that I managed to finish the bulk of it on the drive to and from Arnprior this year. The beautiful pink and orange tones of the yarn are perfectly reminiscent of sweet treats at the pumpkin patch. The cardigan is knitted from the top down. We cast on stitches across the upper back and work down to the underarm, knitting the lace pattern as we go and working armhole shaping at the outside edges. Then stitches are picked up at each shoulder and worked down to the underarm, with armhole shaping to match the back and increases at the inside edge too. There's a little twisted rib edging at the inside edge to stop the fronts curling. Then we work all stitches down to the hem, and pick up stitches round the armholes for the sleeves. Hem and cuffs are worked in twisted 1x1 rib, and there's another repeat of the lace pattern at the cuffs too. We've tried to be as size inclusive as possible here, so there are 11 different sizes so hopefully everyone can pick a cardigan that fits. We include guidance on ease and instructions on how to change the sleeve length. There's a schematic showing all measurements and a disgram showing how to work the upper body too. Arnprior is available at a 50% discount until midnight (GMT) on 7th February 2024 with coupon code ARNPRIOR50.
Knitting Trends - Accessories I made a post on 1st Jan looking at trends for garment designs on Ravelry, so I thought I’d do a follow up for accessories. I really love looking at data and hope this is useful for my fellow knitwear designers as well as people just deciding what to knit next! Where does the data come from? I used Ravelry’s “hot right now” pattern search, filtered for accessories, only paid for patterns and “new to Ravelry”. I feel like free patterns skew the results – they’re not necessarily “hot” because of the pattern but because of the price tag! I included “new to Ravelry” this time as well. When I did my garment design trends post at the start of January I didn’t do this and I think I got a lot of patterns which have been at the top of Ravelry for months if not years, rather than reflecting current trends. I only looked at the top 50, so this is more of a snapshot than a definitive study, but I think it gives a good picture of what’s popular right now. There are definitely categories that I think I could break down further – knit and purl in particular covers a huge range of fabric types from simple stocking stitch to complex textured patterns. When I wrote the post analysing garment trends, I only included one fabric type per garment because there were so many other variables (fit, neckline, sleeve length, hem length….). For accessories, I only had a main category, then one layer of refinement – e.g. neckwear is the main category and that’s refined into scarf, triangular shawl, cowl etc. So I felt like I had more bandwidth to include more detail on the fabric type. I assigned two fabric types to each accessory (if required). This meant I could have e.g. lace and cables rather than picking the more prominent one. I also broke down colourwork into stranded, mosaic, stripes etc. The Results Broad Garment Types
Yarn Weight
Fabric Type
Colourwork Type
Number of Colours
Breakdown within Garment Type
Headwear
Torso
Hands
What Stands Out from the Data? There were a lot more complex fabric types than I found in the garment trends -lots of colourwork, textured patterns, lace and cables. I think this must be because there’s such an abundance of free basic accessory patterns out there, if you’re going to pay for an accessory pattern, you want it to be something special. Whereas even basic sweaters are normally “pay for” – a lot of work goes into grading for multiple sizes and getting the fit right for even a stocking stitch sweater. Neckwear was most popular – this is always great for gifting, one size fits all, versatile in terms of what stitch patterns you can use or which weight of yarn. The yarn weights that turned up most often were fingering and DK weight – these accounted for two thirds of all patterns. This is maybe a little surprising given the time of year – I do love aran and chunky weight accessories when it gets really chilly. I think it’s explained by the nature of the fabrics – lace and especially colourwork often work better with finer yarns. A chunky cowl with a stranded fairisle pattern might be simply too bulky to be comfortable. If I hadn’t filtered out free patterns I think there would be a lot more heavier weight yarns in simpler stitch patterns. Colourwork Triangular Shawls like Thieve's Road (left) proved popular this winter. More complex stitch patterns and multiple colours as used in Dip in the Lily Pond (centre) outperformed basic knit and purl fabrics. Lace shawls like Beinn Ghlas (right) are on trend for Winter 23/24! What are the Major Trends?Colourwork is in! Over half of the patterns used more than one colour, and over a third used colourwork techniques (stranded colourworks, stripes, slip stitch, modular colourwork and woven knitting). The most popular colourwork technique was stranded colourwork by a large margin – fairisle is definitely on trend for Winter 23/24.
The three most popular categories, with each type making up 10% of the patterns surveyed, were: Colourwork socks Cabled/Textured Headwear Colourwork Cowls While neckwear is the most popular category overall, colourwork is definitely the most used fabric type. Since it’s easier to work colourwork in the round it makes sense for colourwork cowls to be so popular. The next two most popular categories, each at around 7% of patterns surveyed were: Lace Socks Lace Triangular Shawls I wonder if this also ties in with the kind of yarn people were gifted – I know if I’m ever asked what yarn I’d like as a gift I ask for 4ply or laceweight since you only need one skein to make an accessory. Although I have been known to ask my parents for a sweater quantity of aran weight yarn, I wouldn’t ask anyone else to splash out potentially £100 on a gift! Then these lighter weight yarns lead to pattern sales for delicate lace designs. Just a thought! We’ve put up the tree, made the first batch of mince pies and had the first snowfall of winter. Pollok Park in Glasgow was looking particularly spectacular in winter conditions. Pollok Park is an amazing place - there's an award winning museum and art gallery, a beautiful stately home with gardens, miles of paths through the woodland, cafes, a farmer's market every month, and even a herd of Highland Cows. All free to access, and literally over the road from my house! We’re so lucky to live in a big city with all the benefits that come with it, and also have a huge country park literally across the road. Best of both worlds for sure! And here’s a bump pic for this week too, this week I’m sporting my Burrell Sweater. It’s a lovely comfy oversized sweater perfect for cosy winter wear when the snow’s falling! I was a bit sceptical about oversized, cropped sweaters initially but I’m a huge convert. I knitted my first one – Tentsmuir Sweater when I was postpartum with my preschooler and genuinely it was the most flattering sweater ever. Now for the knitting news! This week I’ve been chipping away at my latest cardi with Eden Cottage Yarns Lowther Lace and Titus 4ply. I finally got the shoulders finished - normally I’m quite good at sneaking in a bit of mindless knitting here and there, but it’s much tricker when you actually need to focus! The lace here is a little fiddly and the increases at the inner edges of the fronts and for the armhole shaping made it even spicier. I do love knitting lace, but I'm definitely enjoying how fast the stocking stitch section is now! From the back, you can see the zigzag transition from the lace a bit more clearly. I’m thinking about calling this pattern Brocken Spectre. It’s an optical illusion you see in the mist sometimes at the top of a mountain. It’s just your shadow really but it looks like a figure in the fog. I was thinking that the zigzag at the top of the stocking stitch with the airy lace on top looked like mist on the mountaintops. Let me know what you think!
My pre-new year’s resolution is to keep this blog up to date a bit more, so here’s my first weekly update! I reckon if I start now then I'm more likely to actually keep going with it when January rolls around... First off, for anyone who’s seen me in real life in the last few months this isn’t exactly news, but I posted my first bump pic on social media this week! The ultimate WIP: I’m due at the start of April, another little girl. I’m going to need all your suggestions for cute baby knitting patterns. And words of advice for carrying on a business with a baby and a preschooler roaming the house! The cardi in the picture is my Courie In Cardigan - "Courie In" is Scots for "snuggle up", seems pretty apt to me! I finally finished off my sweater in gorgeous Zakami Cashmere Aran yarn this week, here’s a wee sneak peek: This yarn was sooo luxurious to knit with, I have fallen completely in love. They also have the same fibre blend in dk, fingering and laceweight so there will definitely be more Zakami Yarn in my stash in the springtime! The pattern is in the works so anyone who’s looking for a test knitting project should keep their eyes on my social media! I’m still deliberating over a name for this one, all suggestions gratefully received. It was loosely based on my Lochnagar Top, but I’m not sure if just calling it Lochnagar Sweater is too lazy? Let me know what you think! Aaaand, when one project finishes another begins! I’ll be holding together stunning Eden Cottage Yarns Lowther Lace in colourway “Ink” and Titus 4ply in colourway “Penine Mist” together for a fluffy, lacy, snuggly cardigan for the winter months – pure luxury. The Lowther Lace is a gorgeous blend of Baby Suri Alpaca and Silk – it’s maybe just my opinion but I think this is fluffier and softer than mohair silk lace. The Titus Fingering is a merino silk blend with amazing shine - love how the shine of the fingering and the fluff of the lace look together. Here’s how it’s looking so far – just the back shoulders at the moment. If you like the lace pattern you can also find it in my Aonach Cardigan and Suilven Hat and Cowl. I’m going to pick up stitches at the shoulders and work down the fronts, joining at underarm. The lace will finish in a bit of a zigzag design before working most of the body in stocking stitch.
The Littletheorem Knits Black Friday Sale is here, with all my patterns 50% off with so I’m highlighting some of my favourite patterns to tempt you all! Burrell Sweater is a super simple, oversized cropped sweater that’s maybe the most flattering garment I own. Super comfy, super cozy and looks amazing – your wardrobe needs this! The Burrell Collection is an amazing museum and art gallery in the middle of Pollok Park in Glasgow. Truly a world class museum in an enormous country park – it honestly feels like you’re in the middle of the countryside complete with forest, Highland Cows and a stately house with manicured gardens. And the best part is it’s a minute’s walk from my house, we’re living the dream! A stunning shawl with an unusual and beautiful stitch pattern, Beinn Ghlas is perfect gifting material too with Christmas just around the corner. This light and airy shawl will definitely become a firm favourite. There’s include instruction for two sizes. The smaller size only uses around half a skein of yarn, making it super quick to knit. The larger size still uses less than a skein of laceweight yarn, but is a little more luxurious to cuddle up in! Bracklinn is a super cosy sweater with cute button details at the side of the body. I knit this when my wee one was just a newborn for breastfeeding, but this is perfect winter wear for anyone. Who doesn’t love buttons? Inspired by my Bracklinn Crop, it’s the same lace design and yoked construction, but in a chunkier yarn. It’s top down, totally seamless and available in nine sizes. After we work the beautiful lace yoke, we work the front and the back of the body separately down to the hem – with buttonholes on the front panel and buttons on the back. We then work the sleeves down to the cuffs. We also include instructions for a buttonless version if preferred. Maybe the cutest hoodie of all time? Hoodiesaurus is a simple garter stitch hoodie with a twist – spines! I designed this for my baby daughter but I think the appeal is universal so I graded it for adult sizes too. Instructions are given for 17 sizes from newborn to 150 cm/60” chest. I've included instructions for optional waist and sleeve shaping, and for two sizes of buttonhole if you don’t like toggles. Strathclyde is a gorgeous, extra long cardigan with a cosy double moss stitch shawl front and an intricate cabled design – can you believe it's already a year since this was released? Slipped, twisted stitches in the cables are designed to look great in handdyed yarn. It’s a top down, totally seamless cardigan with ¾ length sleeves. Both written instructions and charts are given for all the cable patterns, and it has instructions for 8 sizes to fit a 75 – 150 cm/30 – 60” bust. This is the sister pattern to our Strathearn Cardigan. Strathearn is a beautiful part of Scotland that we visited often before the pandemic hit. I knit the bulk of this cardigan during lockdown so the name is for somewhere a bit closer to home – Strathclyde. Tentsmuir Sweater is a super simple oversized cropped sweater that’s maybe the most flattering garment I own. Super comfy, super cozy and looks amazing – your wardrobe needs this! Tentsmuir is a beautiful pine forest near where I grew up - we always try to go back for a visit every autumn when it’s looking its best. It’s always filled with the most amazing mushrooms, and it feels like you’re in a forest from a fairy tale! The name seemed totally fitting for this deep green sweater – the yarn colourway is even called “Pines”. Liathach Cowl, a stunning mohair silk cowl with an unusual and beautiful stitch pattern. This light and delicate cowl will definitely become a firm favourite. This shawl is a full 40 cm x 150 cm/16” x 60” but uses less than 50g of yarn, making this super quick to knit – perfect for gifting with Christmas just around the corner! Liathach means “the grey one” and is an imposing mountain in the North of Scotland with spectacular spire -like pinnacles. We climbed it on a foggy day and it was like scaling the outside of a cathedral surrounded by mist, unable to see the ground. An unforgettable day and an inspiration for this airy grey cowl. Remember all our patterns are on sale until the end of November, not just these seven. Use coupon code BLACKFRI23 for a 50% discount. I hope you find something you'll love to knit!
We’ve just released our Glen Shiel Cardigan knitting pattern! It’s classic cardigan with a pretty lace pattern and a cosy shawl front. The lace pattern is simple and straightforward, and it knits up fast with DK yarn and larger needles. This is a perfect winter warmer – one you’ll want to snuggle up in every day! Available in eight sizes to fit bust from 30 – 60”.
This cardigan is worked in one piece from the hem up to the underarms, then stitches are divided and we work the two fronts and the back separately, then we rejoin fronts and back with a three needle bind off at the shoulder. Pick up stitches round the armhole for sleeves which are worked flat and seamed, and to finish off pick up stitches round the front of the cardigan for a shawl collar. Shown in size 85-90 cm/34-36” on a model with 34” bust.
Here's the nitty gritty details:
Yarn: Wool and the Gang Sugar Baby Alpaca (100% Baby Alpaca 116 m/127 yds per 50g) DK weight Colourway: Margaux Red Meterage 850 (950, 1125, 1290, 1500, 1690, 1930, 2150) m Yardage 935 (1045, 1240, 1420, 1650, 1860, 2130, 2365) yds Dimensions (Metric) To fit bust: 75-80 (85-90, 95-100, 105-110, 115-120, 125-130, 135-140, 145-150) cm Across Back: 40 (45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75) cm Length Armpit to hem:46 (46, 49, 49, 52, 52, 55, 55) cm Upper Arm Circumference: 30 (35, 35, 40, 40, 45, 45, 50) cm Sleeve Length 48 (48, 51, 51, 54, 54, 57, 57) cm Dimensions: (Imperial) To fit bust: 30-32 (34-36, 38-40, 42-44, 46-48, 50-52, 54-56, 58-60)” Across Back: 16 (18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30)” Length Armpit to hem:18.5 (18.5, 19.75, 19.75, 22, 22, 23.25, 23.25)” Upper Arm Circumference: 12 (14, 14, 16, 16, 18, 18, 20)” Sleeve Length 19 (19, 20, 20, 21.5, 21.5, 23, 23)” Needles: 5 mm/US 8, 100 cm/40” circular needle, set of 5 mm/US 8 DPNs or spare 5 mm/US 8 circular needle Gauge: 16 sts and 26 rows = 4”/10 cm in main lace pattern after blocking. Extras: Tapestry needle for weaving in loose ends, holder or waste yarn for holding live stitches. It’s available on Etsy, Ravelry and here on our website.
We’ve also got a fab test knitting opportunity!
Dip in the Lily Pond is a pretty hat pattern in an unusual stitch pattern. A versatile knit with a wide range of sizes from newborn to adult large, and three colourwork options letting you create beautiful and unique hats for every occasion. Perfect for using mini skeins or leftover odds and ends of sock yarn too! The pattern uses dipped stitches which look just like waterlilies, hence the name of this pattern. To find out more, visit our group on Ravelry. If you’d like to test knit but you’re avoiding Ravelry due to their ongoing issues with accessibility, please get in touch via email. Go to our homepage and click “contact” at the bottom of the screen. For current test knitters, here’s the tutorial video: |
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